


And they were roommates

by rhodestead



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:00:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23411296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodestead/pseuds/rhodestead
Summary: It was a cold winter night. For the third time this month, Riley Davis, the great hacker artemis37, was spending the night in local jail. Except this time, her companion piqued her curiosity. She only got her name, not how or why he deserved such a beating. She would soon know the answer, becoming what will be the most thrilling adventure of her life.
Relationships: Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 83





	1. Handcuffs and Bandana

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, so thank you for your understanding !

Winters aren’t usually arch in California. But it was getting closer and closer to 0 as the hours passed. Riley could feel the iron bench getting frosty even though she was sitting on it. Isn’t is supposed to warm up? she kept asking herself. She rested her head on the back wall, which was not any warmer than the piece of metal they called a bench. She was rubbing her hands. Not only to get some life back into her stone-cold body, but also trying to lose the handcuffs, which with the low temperature have started to leave marks on her wrists. As if it was burning her skin.

She tried to remain calm. Remind herself, what could be worse than last time? The bell rang for the first time that night. That sound always gives her a heart attack. She’ll never get used to it. Why does it have to be so damn loud? The sound of the door opening and the iron clashing always gave her chills. I mean, it would to anyone being stuck in a holding cells for the third time in two months…

“Get in, you son of a bitch” – the guard said as he threw Riley’s new roommate into the back of the cell.

Poor thing looked rough. Black eye, cut on his right temple, bleeding lip and what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder.

“Hey…” said Riley, unsure if she wanted to start a conversation. But at the end, anything was better than dying like frozen peas forgotten at the back of the freezer.

But he barely looked up. She couldn’t tell if it was out of enmity or unable by the pain.

“Fuck it”, she whispered to herself. She stood up and walked toward him. She bent on one knee and hold his head up. Out of pain, she thought. She took off her bandana she wore around her neck. Her mom always hated how quote unquote punk it makes her look, but she liked it anyways.

“They got you pretty good, eh,” said Riley.

With the back of her hand, she gently moved away the blond strand of hair that was covering his eye, revealing the deep cut on his forehead. He took a hell of a beating, she thought as she cleaned around the wound, as best as she could.

But not a word from her new vanquished friend. How can someone end up like this, she wondered? Probably nothing good, but anything was better than rotting alone in this hell hole.

“I’m Riley, by the way,” she tried.

Still no answer. She checked his shoulder to make sure everything was ok. She was no doctor, but she spent enough time with underground gangs to pick up a thing or two along the way. Hackers are no bank robbers, but no friends with cops either.

“Look, I get you’re not the chatty type. That’s fine by me. But it’s dislocated. Every single move is gonna feel like the devil trying to rip your arm off. Sorry about that” She hadn’t finished her sentence she had already fixed his arm.

Nothing but a groan. Hey least he feels something. She sat beside him. Maybe out of curiosity, maybe because the last time she talked to someone, outside of a police station or from her computer, was to her mother, six months ago. They argued, again.

Riley’s always had this rebel in her. Whether it was skipping class in elementary school or trying to burn down the library in high school. She wasn’t a bad kid, but some might say she lost her way.

Her parents were there, kind of. Her mom would jungle two full time jobs, while her father would come home, drunk, and argue. It sometimes resulted in violence. It hasn’t always been this way, though. But when he lost his job, everything went off the rail. Her mom got out of it quick and they ran away. But it wasn’t long before he found them again. Riley was only 12 at the time, but old enough to know that her mom’s new boyfriend was way better than her biological dad. He, for one, cared about her. Yet it didn’t save her.

She soon discovered hacking. A whole new world of possibilities. She didn’t tell anyone, but a hacking job here and there owned her enough so she could get away to college. Graphic design hasn’t always been her first choice but given her record, better than nothing. She did good, but never good enough. She always wanted to prove herself she could do better. In between classes she would hack anything she could. From classmates’ phones to their bank account. Not to steal, just to see if she could. Which she did, by the way. Out of college she was in and out of jobs. But always hacking for anyone who was willing to pay. At 21 she sought to do something else with her life. What about becoming the greatest hacker on the planet. She had the skills, now the money.

What could stop her? Even the pentagon got nothing on her. The irony in all of this, is that even though she made a name for herself, as Artemis37, she couldn’t tell anyone. So, she kept telling her mom she was doing fine, working a 9 to 5 at a diner. Which they both know she wasn’t doing. She was worried, Riley understood that. But what would she think if she knew her daughter was hacking the Chinese government to pay her bills? 

But it was neither the pentagon nor the Chinese that have gotten her involved in the police. It was the NSA, the National Security Agency. Some rivals had blackmailed her to hack into their server to still intel on their cartel, threatening her mother’s life. How could she let them touch her mom? She got herself into this mess, so she had to do whatever it took to get her and her mom out. So, she did, she hacked the NSA, got them what they want. And as promised, they walked away. Not long after federal agents raided her apartment, but Riley was already gone.

Fourteen hours passed before she was apprehended by the local police and thrown in jail. But without evidence she was Artemis37, or anything that would link her to the hacking, they had to let her go. She was good, the best at this. She knew how to cover her trace. The second time they got her was a bit her fault… she didn’t account for the library’s security guard that was less than five feet away when she hacked into the LAPD server to erase her record. But let’s face it, three months for this, she got off pretty easy. And here we are, her third time visiting the local jail in two months. Except this time, she didn’t do anything wrong, or at least nothing they could charge her with.

“Thank you”

“what?” – Riley said, surprised.

“Thank you, for the arm”

“Oh so you can talk?”

“Aren’t you the funny one”

Riley felt a bit cheap. I mean poor guy probably went through a lot, no need to make it worst.

“How did you get that hell of a beating?” – she softly asked.

“It doesn’t matter, he answered after a moment of silence, I’m MacGyver, by the way, you can call me Mac.” He looked up and smiled at her, as a sign of gratitude both for her company and, obviously, for his shoulder.

The rest of the night was spent in total silent from the jailbirds. Nothing much happened after that, except the blond-haired criminal who made Riley’s shoulder his pillow, which she had no objections with. If anything, she was clad she made someone feel comfortable enough with her so that they trusted her like that. It’s has been a while.

The night was going to be a long one…


	2. Blue eyes and guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language, so thank you for your understanding !

“MACGYVER!”

The deep, terrorizing voice of the guard woke up our two sleeping beauties. Still not awaken yet, the bright light of the officer’s flashlight was burning her eyes. All she could see was the shiny badge from which she could only make up “Willis” as they took her new acquaintance into an interrogation room.

“Let us know when you’re ready to talk, scumbag,” the guard said, as he threw Macgyver back into the cell.

“Well that’s a little much…” Riley said under her breath.

“You tell me!” Mac replied, as he smirks.

Sitting at each end of the room, Riley couldn’t take her eyes off the clock… nor the blond felon.

It has been 10 hours since she got in and it’s like she was invisible to anyone around.

“They’ll get to you… don’t worry,” Mac said out of the blues, as if he could read her mind.

“What?” She stuttered.

“This is a police station, Riles, they didn’t forget you,” he said, winking.

“Don’t call me Riles,” she said trying to hide her cheeks getting wine red. She never knew a nickname could have this effect. Or maybe it was his Caribbean blue eyes. Though he didn’t add anything. He didn’t move, but smiled. And so did she.

Until she saw the blood, running down his right side. The throwing around probably reopened his wound. She rushed herself by his side… surprising even herself. She took out the black bandana she had put in her pocket the night before. She gently tried to it clean up.

“You don’t have to, you know?” Mac asked.

“And you think I have something better to do, Macgyver?” Riley replied, as her eyes lingered on his lips.

_Stop, Riley!_ She told herself. _He got beaten up last night and didn’t say a word for 3 hours, then get tossed back into the cell after spending hours with a detective. Doesn’t sound innocent to me._

“So… She tried, will you tell me what happen?”

Mac said nothing, but looked down, as if he was ashamed. Riley was conflicted, as on one hand, she wanted to know what he did to deserve bleeding into a prison cell for two days, but on the other, she wanted to respect his privacy.

“I looked for it,” Mac said.

“I didn’t mean…” Riley replied, ashamed and feeling like she pushed him into sharing something he didn’t want to.

“It’s ok, I want to share, Mac said, I mean, you fixed my arm and probably prevented my forehead from getting infected.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. Riley didn’t know if it was out of shame or if he truly wanted to share.

“I saw an old ex at the bar last night, her name is Nikki. Let’s just said things ended badly between us but. Never the less, I loved her. It was my mistake to try and go talk to her when her new boyfriend… and his friends… were by her side.”

“I’m so sorry about that, Riley replied, if you just wanted to talk, you did nothing wrong.”

She wanted to believe him, but was still skeptical.

“So what did they want back then?” She wondered, referring to the interrogation.

“Her boyfriend is the chief’s daughter…”

“And?”

“He was killed last night.”

“Oh my god,” Riley said, agitated. She unconsciously backed away.

“I didn’t do it,” Mac said, trying to reassure Riley. But it was too late.

“I’m sorry,” she replied as she went back to the bench on the opposite side of the cell.

There was a good 5 minutes of silence between the two offenders.

“So… Mac tried, guess I’m never knowing why we’re roommates”

“We’re not… I don’t know why I’m here” Riley replied, still in shock.

_He seemed so sweet, and caring. How could he be a murder? I mean, killing someone? Taking someone’s life over a girl? This is crazy!_

She spent enough time with assholes to know when they are lying. Her dad for one. Mac was lying. But why? And for what end? Was he really a murderer of was he pretending…? Though why would someone so coldly say such things.

“DAVIS,” the guard shouted, which made her snap out of her daze. She stood up quicker than she ever did, her heart was pounding.

They sat her in the interrogation room, slammed a cup of water and the officer left, locking the door behind him. She almost fell asleep, exhausted from the night before. You don’t sleep much when you’re stuck in a holding cell, unheated and a criminal sleeping on your shoulder.

_Don’t call him a criminal_ … her mind wandered again. _You don’t know if he really did it. I mean sure he had motives but would they have let him... there… with me if they knew he killed her? Maybe that’s why he was so quiet, guilt._

“Wake up sunshine,” the detective said as he entered the room.

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Riley grown.

“Do you know why you’re here, miss Davis?”

“Why don’t you tell me.”

“No need to be passing aggressive. Someone hacked the NSA to recover files on Frank Thompson.”

“Who the fuck is Frank Thompson?” Riley said, starting to let the anger win.

“Remember the bombing of the Lakewood center?”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything”

“Someone stole Thompson’s files. Erase them. Meaning we have nothing on him, and he walks free.”

“And you think I had something to do with this?” she started to get startled.

“We found a pattern, miss Davis. The same as yours.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Do I need a lawyer?”

“Artemis37. Don’t lie to me we both know it’s you.” The detective said, with an obnoxious smirk.

“You can’t prove that.”

“You will tell us where those files are, and who you sold them to,” he replied, impatient.

“For the last time. I don’t know who this Flynn guy is, least of all who has those files.”

“Frank and…”

The detective didn’t even finish his sentence someone busted in the door and threw what seemed like a canister bomb (yes, like the ones in Call of Duty). All Riley could see through the smoke was Mac, out of his handcuff and holding her up after knocking out the detective.

“Mac? What?” She screamed, visibly shaken up.

“No time to explain, come with me,” he simply replied.

As they walked in the corridor, she could see the officer’s shadow, the same who took Mac in the interrogation room the same morning. Willis, it was.

But except now, she could see his face. She couldn’t believe it.

“Jack?”


	3. bullet and family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for the end ! It might seem a bit rushed but i was in a bit of a creative slump and wanted to give y'all an ending !

All three were so caught up in the heat of it all they did not notice the second guard standing behind Mac and Riley. He didn’t let jack the half of a second it would have taken him to tell his friends to duck, or to run that he had already fired his weapon.  
“RILEY,” Jack screamed, both out of pain and panic.  
“What the hell happened?” Mac replied in shock.  
Mac barely had time to turn around the guard was already pointing his weapon at him.  
“HANDS UP,” the guard shouts at the second prisoner.  
But Mac’s reflex was not to put his hands up, nor was it to run. He rushed down to protect Riley and used his jacket to pressure the wound, hoping the bullet didn’t do any damages. It was an inch from her heart. As he tried to stop the bleeding, he hears a loud bang.  
When he looked back up, Jack had fired his weapon at the guard. It was a flesh wound, obviously. Enough to disable him, but making sure he would be able to fully recover. Jack wasn’t a killer, he was a soldier on a mission. His mission was to save Riley, with the least number of casualties as possible. And no innocents shall be hurt.  
“Mac, Riley, are you ok?” Jack ran toward his partners.  
“I am, she’s in bad shape,” Mac told him, shaken up. He usually isn’t the kind of person who’ll get agitated easy, nor who would be frozen by surprise. But somehow, he did.  
“Get her in the car, NOW!” Jack felt the sense of urgency as he heard sirens coming their way. It might be 6 in the morning, but the city never sleeps.  
Mac didn’t even think. He put his arms around her shoulders and legs and pull her close to his chest. Then ran toward the back exit, Jack behind him, to the getaway car they parked for this exact reason.  
“Mac…” Riley said, faintly.  
“I’m here,” he replied without letting her finish.  
“What happened?”  
“I’ve got no idea, but we will figure it out, I promise”  
“No, I mean, what the fuck is Dalton doing here and who the fuck are you.” She was noticeably upset, and taken aback by what just happened.  
This can’t be happening, what was Jack doing with an alleged murderer? Or was he really? How much of it was a lie? And how much of it was real?  
“It’s ok, Riley,” Jack told her as he kept his eyes on the road.  
“Fuck you. Where the hell are you taking me,” she said, furious at her mom’s ex-boyfriend.  
“Riley look at me, Mac stepped in, we’re federal agents, taking you to a safe place. There are people out there who are planning a terrorist attack here, in California. Frank Thompson. There was too much heat around him we had to take it off the grid…”  
“So you deleted his file and pinned in on me? What did I ever do to you so you would put me in this position? Do you…” she couldn’t finish she was already coughing blood.  
“Hey don’t talk, you’ll be ok. We didn’t mean to pin it on you. But Jack said it would be one way to bring you in.”  
“Bring me in? cause asking is hard…”  
Jack never did much to help. So why should I be the one helping him now? After he was the second man to abandon mom.  
“Don’t. Talk. I’m not kidding Riley. We’re 3 minutes away and we called a surgeon. We didn’t mean it to go down that way but someone must have tipped the cops. It wasn’t supposed to be this quick.”  
“2 minutes,” jack shouts from the driver seat, while he was going 45 miles an hour in a 30-mile zone.  
Next thing Riley remembers was people shouting, wondering what happened. Then, nothing.  
\--  
Riley woke up in what looked like a hospital bed, but nothing around her was hospital-like. More like a warehouse. She could hear people talking in the distance.  
“Riles…” Jack ran by her side. But she already laid on the other side, turning her back at his.  
“Go away”  
“Can I at least explain what happened?”  
She didn’t say yes, but neither did she object.  
“Frank Thompson,” he starts, “Frank Thompson is the head of a terrorist organization that call themselves the rightful soldiers. They don’t believe in governments, in any governments, and so they want to give the power back to the people. What concerns us is that they don’t care about anyone, or anything. They will destroy whatever comes their way whether that is civilians or military.”  
“And what the hell does that have to do with me? I have told you I want nothing to do with you. I don’t care if you sell tiles or if you’re a spy, Jack, I asked you to stay out of my life.”  
“Yes you did, and I’m sorry for that. The thing is, they recruited an old member of our team. She was the best hacker I’ve ever known… after you of course… and she most have known about you in some way, because she is the one who erased the Thompson files so we would lose the only thing we have on him. I guess this was a way to tell us she was still out there and framed you so she could get away with it.”  
“Who is she and how does she know the way I code? That’s very personal and I don’t see how she could have gained access to…” She couldn’t finish her sentence that Mac already knew where she was going. And had an answer ready for that.  
“Her name is Nikki Carpenter…”  
They had a habit of interrupting each other’s.  
“Your girlfriend you saw at the bar who dislocated your shoulder and gave you a black eye Nikki?”  
“Well I might have exaggerated what happened… Truth is we looked for you everywhere. We needed to find you before the cops did but we were too late so we needed an excuse to talk to you, alone.”  
“So what? You dislocated your own shoulder? Who gave you a beat-up cause that was real.” She insisted.  
“We needed to make it look real so Jack… and it’s not what it looks like… it’s not important… Nikki she was my ex-girlfriend. And an ex-colleague. We think this is how she knew about you, when we would talk about our personal lives together and with Jack. She knows you’re a hacker, a good one. She was, well she is too. I’m not surprised she figured out a way to mimic the way you code. I’m sorry you got pulled into this, Riley. Truly.”

It took Riley some time to come back to her senses and digest what she had just heard.  
“So what now?” She finally asked. This wasn’t how she planned on spending her Saturday… or was it Sunday now… but deep down, she knew this was something important, people were in danger. “It looks like you need a hacker.”  
“No.” she hears from the back of the room. “I am not putting you in danger.” It was Jack, in the distance.  
“Wait a minute, let her talk,” followed. It was an unfamiliar voice, but she likes it when people give her a chance. People always underestimated her, so she was used to prove herself to others. Turns out, the voice belonged to a Matilda Webber, Matty they call her. No one actually said she was the boss, but you could tell, she was the boss.  
“If you say she’s that good of a hacker, you’ll need an even better one to track her.”

That is all Riley needed to say. Next thing, Matty ordered Jack to bring her a laptop, which he did. Trying to ignore the growing pain in her shoulder as she typed on the keyboard, it took her about 15 seconds for faces to appear in the screen.

“Shouldn’t be long, running a facial recognition software all across America, we should have a location soon if that Thompson guy or the ex-girlfriend of yours ever went outside in the past few days.”  
“Told you she was impressive,” Jack said in reaction to Riley’s skills.  
“All you said was that it was your fault and you were sorry all of this happened,” Mac replied, teasing Jack, but couldn’t help but glance at Riley who smiled at his comment. 

\--  
It was less than 24 hour later, when the crisis was averted and the tension finally came down that Riley received a message text from Mac. It was an address, an hour, and a comment that read “you’re not the only one who’s good at hacking, I have contacts too ;) I hope a text is not too invasive!” She couldn’t help but smile. 

This was the first of many hangout at Mac’s place. I finally found my family, she thought to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you want an epilogue !


End file.
